001Good evening and welcome to the March 10th, 2026 meeting of the Spack and Killy Union Free School District Board of Education. I'd ask that you rise and join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. I'd ask that you remain standing for a moment of silence for the service members that we've lost abroad in Operation Epic Fury. If not for their ultimate sacrifice and the sacrifice of their families, we would not be able to enjoy the freedoms that we do. >> Thank you. Okay. Item 1.03. Mr. Mark Fleshower is here. He's candidacy for the nomination to the Duchess Bosey's board. >> Good evening. My name is
002Mark Flehower. I'm a candidate for Duchess Bosey's board. I know a few faces here. I'm going to be very brief because I have to get the rhyme back from my own board meeting. Um very excited about the future of Boseies having made great strides over the past few years with new programs and completing their building project. I've been on the Reinbeck board of education for 20 years and I have served as president vice president of that board and I've served on many committees over those years. I represent Rybeck at the Duchess County School Boards Association and I served as vice president and president of that association. I'm a great believer of in collaboration poses as a prime example of collaborative service and I believe the importance of programs for students who may not be collegebound
003such as CTI. I feel there is a great need um for programs like those that provides. I'm employed by Archare, the um healthcare arm of the arch dasis of New York and I'm president of the Reinbeck Alumni Association and the Rybeck Reinach Exchange Program, which is a music program for high school students in Reinbeck area and Rybach, Germany. I hope you'll consider nominating me for board. Thank you very much for your time and I wish I could stay for your meeting, but I have to get the rounds. So, thank you very much. Thank you. Okay. Item 2.01 is comments from the public on consent agenda items only. Public comment. Any board discussion on consent agenda items? Um item 3.08 08 is the 2026 nominations from the Duchess County Bosey's Board of Education. We did receive
004a second letter of candidacy just this afternoon. Uh if the board would like to discuss that, we can pull that item from the consent agenda, move on the consent agenda, and then come back to that. Is that is that something that sounds reasonable? Okay. So, I'll entertain a motion to pull item 3.08 08 in the consent agenda. Do I have a second? All in favor? Passes 40. Okay. Do I have a motion to accept the consent agenda less item 3.08? Do I have a second? Second. >> All in favor? Okay, that passes 40. So, back to item 3.08. Uh, we just heard from Mr. Flehower. Uh, we did get a letter from Judy Moran who is with Lee Tuck. Um, did everybody have an opportunity to read that? It's hot off the presses, so I
005understand if you didn't. Any objections to modifying 3.08 to include there are two open seats. So, those would be the two candidates that we would be electing as our, you know, for our candidacy. So yeah. >> Okay. So I'll entertain a motion now then to uh accept item 3.08 but also adding Judy Moran from Lee Matuck schools as a second candidate for the Duchess County Boowki's board of education. >> Okay. Do I I'm sorry. >> So the nomination form is blank as it said. So we're just proposing our name. >> Yes. I'm encouraging you board approve it. I fill it out and then I send it over. >> I mean, one wasn't added prior to this, so we both can add it, right? >> Okay, we have a we have a motion. Do we have
006a second? Second. >> Okay, all in favor. Okay, that passes 40 as well. Item 4.01, we need a motion to take from the table the agenda item 7.02 02 from the January 13th, 2026 board meeting. That's related to policy 1111.1 public comment at board meetings. Do we have that motion? Do I have a second? All in favor? I. So, it passes 40 as well. So, 4.02 is our first reading of policy 1111.1 public comments at board meetings. We have a motion to accept that. Do I have a second? All in favor? I passes 40 as well. Uh 4.03 is the first reading of policy 71000, which is a public use of school facilities. Do I have a motion on that first reading? Do I have a second? Okay. All in favor? All right, passes 40.
007Item 4.04 is we got a lot of policies today. First reading of policy 8123 or school safety plans and team. Do I have a motion to accept that first reading? Do I have a second? Okay. All in favor? I passes 4. 4.05 is first reading of policy 8520 free meal services. Do I make a motion to accept that? Do I have a second? All in favor? I passes 40. 4.06. First reading of policy 8505 charging meals and other food items. Do I have a motion to accept? I have a second. Okay. All in favor? I passes 40 and 4.07 is a first reading of policy retirement. I think it's worthwhile just to say which policies that are being retired. It doesn't say it on the main agenda, so just bear with me for a second.
008Okay, that would be replacing uh I'm sorry. These policies were found to be outdated and are no longer required for the district manual. It was 3113.2 food service equipment 3113.3 subsidized school breakfast program 3113.4 collection method for school lunch and breakfast 3113.5 offered versus served lunch 3113.6 six, food service management. So, do I have a motion for that policy retirement? Do I have a second? All in favor? I passes 40. And our last one, 4.08, second reading of policy 3137, credit charge, I'm sorry, credit cards and charge cards. Do I have a motion to accept? Do I have a second? All in favor? >> I passes 40. Okay. Thank you. So that brings us to item 6.01. We have a OC's budget presentation. Hello. Good evening everybody. How are you tonight? Um I just for
009those of you who don't know, I'm the district superintendent at Duchess Bosey's Jod Valuchia. It's nice to see so many faces that I know and a couple that are new. Um and this is my um colleague Derek Shouline who is our school business manager at Dutch Boseies. We're really excited to be here with you tonight to talk about not only our administrative budget and our proposal for that for next year, but a little bit about our progress as we've been moving along our journey of innovation, partnership, and growth. Um, so I'm very excited to talk to you a little bit about some new programming that you'll see next year at Duchess Boseies, some new opportunities, and some new partnerships. Um, so we're going to talk about that. Um you guys already had a little bit
010of my conversation on our open seats at the board of trustees. So you're aware that we have two open seats this year. Um we'll have a seat for uh Bryce Holland who is our Pikipsy representative and a seat for Mr. Michael Real who is a representative in Beacon. So how the board open seats work as you know the Duchess OC's board of trustees is made up of representatives from our component districts um any district can be represented but they can only be represented once they don't have to be represented by a sitting board member but they do have to be represented by a resident of that district so I'm happy to um probably you all know uh introduce you tonight Ralph Jimento who is the president of our board of education and he repres represents
011Spack and Kill on our board. Those two open seats, um, as you might know, nominations are due on the 20th. Districts will vote on those open seats when they vote for our budget on April 28th. So, I would like to just take this moment to invite you all to our annual meeting if you know you are looking for extra things to do. Um, our annual meeting is pretty fabulous. uh followed by a meal from our culinary students and that's going to be at 4:30 on April 8th. I almost said 28th, but that's the date you're voting. April 8th um at our conference center on Salt Point Turnpike. Did I miss anything? I don't think I missed anything on this slide. So, I'm going to turn it over um to Derek. He gets to do the
012number stuff and then we'll come back and I get to do the fun stuff. I mean, the other stuff. >> I have another side. No. Thanks Dr. Deluchia and thank you all again for this opportunity to come for a few minutes and talk a little bit about the Bosey's budget. Uh my goal for uh these next few slides is fairly straightforward. I'm going to try to uh talk through the numbers fast enough that your coffee doesn't have a chance to get cold, but not so fast that it looks like we're hiding anything in the decimals. So really is an overview of the budget process. Uh for us that begins in earnest in the late fall with internal conversations and budget analyses where we really take a look at current program and try to project what
013we think those costs are going to look like provide those services next year. We put that together, develop the coming rates and the rate sheets and we send those out in January and they those did go out to the business offices uh in the January along with the copy of the services guide. We do ask that to try to be returned by early April. And the reason being is if we can get it by then, it really does give us good month, month and a half to go through all those requests, take a look at what everyone's needs are, and then try to come up with the costs that we're going to have to have to try to provide those services and to be able to do that and put together a budget with Fidelity
014and time for our board to be able to take a look at it at the June 10th uh board meeting. Just as a a 30,000 foot overview, we're taking a look at BOS's revenue across programs. Um really the largest share of our revenue comes from special and alternative education. That would be part of the programs at Salt Point Center and some others as well as our resilience academy. And kind of right across from that another bulk coming from cross contracts uh which is really those programs that you purchase through from otheries through us. uh for example big ticket item being like uh participation in the regional information center with Rick uh through Olster Boseis and then kind of down around learning tech with the shared hardware purchase and maintenance my old stomping grounds in ER
015uh which is professional development support the CTI center and then at the top of that that pie chart in the blue there is kind of where we're going to focus our attention on the administrative portion of the Boseis budget uh which is among the smallest uh just a note on this the other aside from the admin and the capital the other 93 and a half or so percent of the budget uh is all paid for. It's all revenue generating paid for fee services. So that is districts like the US purchasing service us and us paying to provide them. Made some budget assumptions as we all do when we're putting this together. Um the first among them being that we are uh we do have an open uh contract this year with our teachers association and
016so we are anticipating and hopeful uh for a speedy settlement that is both equitable and financially responsible and sustainable moving forward. Uh like all of our districts um we owe again 9.9% um average uh health insurance increase the premiums. Um it's important to note that Duchess Boseies does not set that rate. We are a member of DHCK. We are one of the 24 members just like Spack and Hill. Um and so we are faced with the same rate increases that the districts are facing right now. We're looking to maintain our level of investment in making sure that our kids in the tech center uh sorry the career technical institute still have access to the latest technology and tools to learn their craft um to maintain our investment in really meeting the growing needs and referrals
017from the special ed population. We do expect some growth growth in our early college access uh coser and of course this year we introduced um new safety and security kosher and looking forward to supporting that roll out in the future. Just a note on discretionary spending um you know in light of budget situations we have gone through and really taken a a deep look and a hard look to make sure that any expense that is not revenue generating really taking a look and weighing that that is absolutely necessary to move forward. I just want to make the note that we're only asking the board to vote on the administrative budget specifically. The rest of the budget is not part of the vote just for anybody who haven't done it before. >> So the administrative portion
018of that budget is uh as you can see there proposed for next year 7.142 million which is a budget-to-budget increase of a little over 4%. And I just got done saying we were going to be responsible with the uh discretionary budget and then we've got a 4% increase. Um and really if you look down to the blue box you're going to see why that is. Um and that is the lion share of that increase is driven by retirey health insurance and Medicare reimbursement costs under the law. Whenever an employee retires as soon as that happens their health care costs are moved into the administrative budget. So we see that is about threequarters of the budget and really the bulk of the increase uh for next year. Um, with that budget, we have to have raised
019revenue to meet it. Um, and so you see on the bottom table, you'll see really the bottom number, which is an average increase in the charge to component districts of 4.94%. And that number is a little bit higher than the year-to-year budget increase. And the reason for that is that red hour right there. And that is other revenue. Uh, that's really revenue from interest income. And with rates having gone down, we anticipate that being a little bit lower, which then pushes up the amount of charge you have to make up from the component districts. So taking away the funding I mentioned that is a 4.94 average. Um the way that is allocated each district you might be more or less than that average is allocated by our WADA which is that second column there. Our
020water for any who don't know is resident weighted average daily attendance which is a mouthful of a way of saying basically your student enrollment uh with some waiting. Look down to uh spacing pills line you can see the share of the budget is just under 300,000 with a 13,450 increase which is actually an increase of 4.77%. So just a hair under the average within the budget and as Dr. Delucia mentioned the administrative budget that you're voting on, there's also separately a capital and and rental funding. And while this is not part of what the districts will vote on, it is part of what gets allocated and cost out to the districts along the same way that the administrative budget is allocated based on our award. And so we do like to show this just for
021transparency purposes. We are budgeting to include another million dollar transfer into the capital fund. And that's really to handle those kind of midsize repairs, those things that are a little bit too big for the FNO team to do in their regular maintenance, enough people on the campus, but not nearly so big as you'd want a bonded capital project. So, think like, you know, roof leak repair, placing HBAC or some windows, that sort of thing. And also $61,200 uh for rental classrooms within the district for those programs. I see Dr. Ducha eding. >> I Yeah. So just fun fact part of that 61,200 for ind district programs comes back to smack and kale because you host some of our in district classrooms here in spack and kill to help us take care of our kids. So
022thank you for that. >> So if we just go down we see uh spack and pill share on our water a slight decrease in our water which actually led to a decrease in your share of this portion of the budget uh 0.05%. So it's a savings of $25. not spend it all at once. >> I just want to wrap up this section by talking briefly about uh financially what you get back from participating and partnering with the Boseies. Of course, in addition to all the services and those benefits that we bought. So last year, Spack and Kill all in spend a little over $6 million on Bosei services and as a result of that in this current year the district uh is be getting back just under $2.3 million and that comes from two sources.
023The first being 558,000 in change which is surplus. So we took in more in revenue last year um than we needed in expenses and so that does get returned to the Boseies I'm sorry from the Boseies to the districts. We actually sent those checks out say about 3 weeks ago. I know that people got them. They were cashed right away and the other part of that being um Boseies aid and again together that came to about 38% of the cost that was spent with the Boseies. We do want to note though that the actual number returned is higher than that because it does not count any of the eight based on special ed expenses. Those get returned to the district via directly the highest. >> So with that, I'm going to turn back over to
024Dr. Bucha to kind of talk about where we are and where we're going and bring us home. >> Thank you. >> Okay. I told you I get the fun stuff because I get to talk about kids. So, um, we do like to share with the districts that although our coasters are not, uh, part of the budget that you're voting on, that is a participation based kind of like a purchase for the district. Um, we do like to share what your kiddos are doing when they come to us. So, um, we have 17 students from Spack and Kill in our special and alternative education, our resilience academy. um seven in our Salt Point Center, which is our K8 special education center, one in our resilience academy, and nine in our in district classrooms, both here in
025Nasson Hagen and also up at Red Hook High School. You have 42 students in our career and technical institute and um we kind of give you the weighted ones on top. So you have eight of your so you have a big year of kids who want to go into cosmetology. So you have eight students in cosmetology this year, six in the electric trades, five in early childhood, four in the construction trades, four in culinary, and then another 15 who we have called in these PowerPoint slides this year assorted others. So they're just peppered probably like one per class across the rest of the district. Um, so believe it or not, uh, March 5th was technically my one-year anniversary in this position, which was really exciting. And that was about the time sometime in April actually
026that we really named and kicked off this journey of innovation uh partnership and growth and really started to take a really close look at what it is that could be possible if we really worked in a focused way uh to support those students to create opportunities for those students who are really the furthest from them. Right? So what does it look like when we really partner with um our industry partners, with our local governments, with our component school districts? What are the possibilities and how do we make sure that we can best meet the needs of the the region? So you know the first is this we we we went about the task of strategic planning through our blueprint for excellence and these are our four priority areas. The first really is self-explanatory. It's Boseies
027as the leadership and central service hub, right? We want to be everybody's first call. And a great example was just, you know, today where, you know, the county executives office was looking for an answer to a question and instead of reaching out to all 13 component districts one at a time, you know, reached out to my office and said, "Is this something that you can assist with?" So, we want to be the first call for our component districts. We also are the first call for NICED and sometimes going back to the districts for Nison. So really that's really our focus is how do we expand those services, build those partnerships and grow together. The second is on talent talent management and development both internal and external. Um and so we have our inaugural uh Duchess
028job fair or Duchess County educator job fair happening at Duchess Boseies in April and lots of districts will be joining us. they'll be able to um interview on the spot and be able to um talk about themselves and show themselves off at their tables. So, we hope to see you there. Um the student engagement and experiences, that's really been the focus of our area is really creating and expanding those opportunities, making sure that what we're doing is, you know, not only of the highest quality, but the most innovative and the cutting edge. We had a really interesting presentation by a former superintendent who said, and I can't ever let it go. You know, Jod, we don't send them to you. We try everything we can in district to make our students successful. We don't send
029them to you because we want them to have less. So, your programs need to be the best program that we're sending our kiddos to to take really good care of them. And that has stuck with me ever since. So, I have some very interesting um statistics for you. In uh 2022, we had a total number of 85 kindergarten referrals through the course of the whole year. In 2025, last year we had 178. We are able to accommodate approximately 40 kindergarten students. So when you think about that number, right, I always say this phrase, it's if not us, then who? That's a lot of babies that don't have placements. I'm sure that Lori would be happy to share that this is true around the state, but that's a lot of babies that we need to find
030ways to help meet their needs, right? So I would say that leads right into our operations focus. Um, we do have a space utilization study going on. I know we had a wonderful capital project. You just heard the candidate for our board uh mention it. Um, but we are fully out of space. We're out of bays. We're out of classrooms. And um, we've got a lot of kiddos in this county who need supports. So, if you would be interested on our website is our space utilization survey. um asking our partners what it is that they think you know we should focus on moving forward and where we should focus our priorities and it's really just a thought exchange. It's a simple question. Please take the opportunity to go to our website which is just dcosce.org
031and fill that out for us. We have some exciting new opportunities for students next year um both in our special ed programming and in our career and technical institute. We have a new we have our EMT program that started this year. Those students will be considered EMT1 when they complete. So next year they'll be able to be enrolled in EMT2. We also have a new exploratory program starting next year. Those are for the kiddos who may not exactly know where they need to land, but they want to go ahead and you know explore the different programming and supports at the Boseies. And another really exciting one is our hospitality services program. And that's really a work-based learning in the hospitality area. That's for the students who may be um not quite able to be successful
032in a culinary arts program, but there's certainly things in the hospitality field that they could be prepared to support and do. And we're really excited to continue to provide those additional opportunities. So, those are in the services guide that was sent out for next year along with our security service. Mostly, we just want to say thank you and that we appreciate you. I know that it's a really long presentation and I know that there's, you know, a lot of kiddos behind me and they're a lot more fun to look at than I am. Um, but if you have any questions, we're here. We're happy to answer them. Uh, we appreciate you and we appreciate your partnership as we go forward and um, continue to expand opportunities for the kiddos that we serve. Thank you so
033much. >> Thank you guys. Have a great night. Okay, that brings us to item 6.02. We have our budget update from our school business administrator. >> Thank you. Good evening everyone. Um, tonight's budget discussion will actually present the proposed 2627 budget. We'll review the various considerations that went into preparing that budget, which includes a proposed vehicle purchase for facilities. We'll take a look at the key budget drivers that comprise the proposed budget um as required by law. We will present a three-part budget, which is your admin, program, and capital pieces. We'll also look at the proposed tax levy that we're looking to have approved that will support the proposed budget. And again, by law, we're obligated to present a contingency budget. And we'll wrap it up by going through the rest of the budget calendar.
034The proposed budget for 2627 is 61,142791 which represents an increase of 3.9 million or a percentage increase of 6.95%. The proposed levy to support that budget is 34 million254907 which represents an increase of 1.75% over the current year's tax limit. Some of the considerations that went into this year's budget are the salaries for the collective bargaining agreements that are currently in place and estimates for the contracts that we have that will be ending in June of 2026. So, we're currently in contract negotiations. Um, I believe there's three contracts that will that end in June of 2026 that we will be negotiating. Um, as just presented, OC services, uh, their increase in costs and the district's increase in participation of OC services, we're looking at an increase in contracted transportation based on historical trends, that increase
035is about 8% this year. Um, special ed tuition, again based on historical trends, is about 8%. The health insurance as also demonstrated in the Bosey's budget is approximately a 10% increase in premiums for Stacking Hill. We don't anticipate any additional borrowings in for debt service and we're looking to replace one facilities vehicle. Some other considerations is we're looking to add a psych a psychologist so that we will be able to staff a psych a psychologist in each of our four buildings. We're also looking at salary adjustments and predium rates um that will reflect the increase in the New York State minimum wages and we're looking to also maintain a competitive competitiveness with our districts in Duchess County. For facilities, we're looking to replace old and damaged facilities equipment. There's also classroom maintenance and repairs for
036example window shades, furniture, smartboards for instructional needs, purchase of textbooks, hardware, software supplies. We're increasing the use of um software and instructions. So that will add to licensing costs and a lot of the software also have workbooks and textbooks associated with those products. technology. We are definitely trying to step up our psych cyber security and our software subscriptions are just to maintain the current ones that we have in the district and are also supplementing um the instructional needs for our our teachers. We're looking to purchase a Chevy truck, which we are looking to replace a current 2004 dump truck that we have, which has over 60,000 miles and a lot of frame damage and deterioration and a rotting tow hitch. So, we're looking to we've gotten quotes of approximately $75,000 to replace that truck. The
037key components of the budget again these are the five top components of the budget which historically and again in this year represent about 85% of the total budget salaries uh health insurance our expenses our two retirements ERS and TRS and debt service. The key here is these expenses are almost guaranteed. The district does not have a lot of leeway into these expenses. They're given um their obligations that we have currently in place. The three-part budget, administrative program, and capital. Um the percentages have been pretty standard from year to year. The administrative budget is a little over 10% of the total budget and that's basically the salaries and benefits of administrators, clerical, um, schoolboard costs, uh, some of the data processing costs. The program budget is always the lion share. This year it represents a little
038over 76% of the total budget. And again, this is all of your instructional needs. For capital, those are our custodians, maintenance, debt service, utilities, um insurance, and that represents a little over 12% of our total budget. The maximum tax levy that the district could have imposed this year is 34 million 357519, which would have been a 2.06% 06% increase over the current year. We are proposing a tax levy of 34 million254907 to support the proposed budget which represents an overall increase for the levy of 1.75% which has been where we like to keep the tax levy. It's been pretty consistent and under 2% historically. We are required to present a contingency budget. A contingency budget comes into play if the voters vote down our proposed budget. If the voters do not approve our budget, the
039board has two options. We can have a second vote and present another budget or the same budget. If that second vote is also not approved, then we are forced to adopt a contingency budget. And the key driver for a contingency budget is a 0% tax levy increase. So what would a proposed budget look like for spacking? The proposed levy is for the budget that's being proposed is 34 million254907. For a contingency budget, it would have to be equal to the current year's tax levy which is 33665757 or a reduction in the budget from the proposed budget of 589,50. The reductions to meet that requirement would be a reduction in the equipment allocations of 260,500 reducing the transfer to other funds of 100,000 and a reduction in our overall supplies of 228,650. A contingency budget would
040then be 60,553641, which would represent a 5.92% increase over the current year's budget. The remainder of the budget calendar is getting close. The next board meeting, Dr. Fanueli, will present the superintendent's recommended budget. On April 14th, we will be asking the board to adopt the proposed budget. May 5th, we will be having the public hearing so the public can weigh in on the budget. And on May 19th, we will be having the budget vote and we will be electing one trustee. Um information for candidates who are for people who are wanted to be candidates for the the board is posted on our website and candidate packets are available from our district clerk. Any questions? might just ask just a very general question regarding what an anticipated state aid looks like for next year compared to
041previous >> um >> compared to last year. >> We will get an increase but the increase will not be as large as it was last year. That's due to foundation aid where we will be made whole. We will now we are now deemed a whole harmless school district. So our increase in foundation aid is just 1%. But we will be getting about a 5% overall increase in state aid. >> Thanks question. I I like that we're still staying below the 2% or we're averaging around that 1.75, but our total is going our total budget is going to go up almost 7% next year of close to $4 million. And the year before that it went up 6% at $3 million and then it was $2 million. The year before that at 3.89 and then 1.5
042the year before that. I'm just it's I know inflation is terrible and it's really hurting everybody. Um but we're going up $4 million this year at close to 7%. And part of that is our 1.75. Um and if we continue in this trend, are we looking at, you know, a 10% budget increase next year or the year after, you know, a 8% and then 9%? Are we trending in that direction? we could be. The biggest piece of this budget increase was the 10% in health insurance. That represented almost a million dollar increase in and of itself. So, a large part of our future budget increases could very well reflect what health insurance is going to look like. >> Yeah. A lot a lot of what she showed um >> on there you can see uh
043is almost uncontrollable cost. It's the cost of was 85%. Yes. >> Um, you know, it really is is dealing with that. I know DJ also have to be on that board and are looking at different ways, you know, we try to, uh, keep those numbers down as, you know, as the years progress, there's a couple committees put together to really take a look at that. Um, that's really the key cost. Um, good news is we're probably, you know, based on talking districts, we're probably the lowest tax. I think some districts have already hit what was talking about you know some are either at their tax cap um or or so uh it is a concern you know we've talked about in the past is that um you have a 2% tax cap roughly everything else
044you see here presenting about 8% increase 10% increase um at some point you know Uh I think we are going to reach a point where uh tax cap might not be beneficial anymore for for districts. I don't think we're reaching that point yet, but I think some districts around us might be getting that. Uh we'll see what happens with with 2% tax capital. I don't know how long. Uh that can continue not just see coming down the road that you're probably right. We're probably going to hit our tax cap at some point. Um I I don't know what what's best is, you know, continuing what we've been doing with the 1.75 or staying around there so we don't get hit with a big one later on or trying to lower at a point that we
045have the ability to get it rolling. >> So we've been trying to stay consistent. Um if if we had a year of really low and the next year would have to be really high and have to trying to be consistent and it helps the taxpayer versus having and flows and having a 5% tax levy. uh you know do do a one and the next year have a have a five just um we've always felt it was better for the next few years to try to be as consistent as possible. Even with that strategy we could reach a point where we can't because of what's going on. Um, but you know, Val has done a great job. You know, we look at at what we have and how to how to get by with, you know,
046the best possible scenario for tax levy as we can. I I I guess I just don't understand to a certain extent um where we're at a you know 7% increase of $4 million and then at the end of each year we have money that's going into our reserve funds in excess of millions of dollars. Um so I just I I struggle with that part and I and it's probably just me personally. I just don't understand how we're we have leftover uh that we're adding into our reserve funds of millions of dollars for the last three four years we're increasing it. >> But a lot of state aid is an estimate. So when I do the budget, I use it based on the government's estimate of what state aid is. There are other revenue sources that
047are a guess. For example, one of the big ones for us is interest rates from investments that have been going up and it's it fluctuates up down. There are different instruments that are available to the district to invest in. It's hard to predict a year in advance if those interest rates what those interest rates will be and what in instruments are available to the district. So, a lot of times that's a fluctuation of our revenue. When Bose's just presented their budget, they gave a number of a Bose surplus that comes to the district, Boseies doesn't know what that number is until the end of their fiscal year. So there's no way for a component district to factor that into our revenue. So there are just revenue streams that are unpredictable and we go into the
048budget season with estimates. And fortunately for us, a lot of times we do have that extra revenue going forward. That's not necessarily a guarantee. Sometimes state aid will be exactly what it is and not extra during the year. That Bose surplus may be a lot less than it was the year before. So those kinds of revenue streams which gives us that surplus at the end of the year are a little bit hard to predict. I say we've been lucky the last couple of years with uh the amount that we've been taking back in surplus with it. Um but it's just it's it's hard to see a 7% increase to our budget of of $4 million even though it's only 1.75 of our our tax levy going up. Um and just seeing that trend going in
049that direction is trying to uh do what we can to keep it as low as we can especially when we're again having a lot left over each year. And I know that's hard to predict and you know really it's almost gambling at that point to go totally out on us. So I do appreciate staying under the two or averaging to 1.75. I just really wish we could try to uh get it as low as we can especially with the tax loading. I'd rather see that go down than stay the same each year for having surplus each year. Yeah, I mean I a couple of thoughts um you know about the the general situation and in in the context of what Jeff is saying. I mean one those capital reserves that are funded are are in
050part a hedge against costs that we know will be coming in the future. The electric bus issue is when we talked about before and that's a huge potentially huge cost in the future that we have to be prepared for. So I think it's prudent you know to have money in reserve for that reason and I and my understanding is that the increase in the healthcare premiums is magnified now because uh during the co era the pandemic was those increases are quite low in fact flat you know for a number of what two years I think. >> Yes. So the increases that we're seeing now seem all the more dramatic and account for the sudden you know jump in in size of the budget >> and prescription costs seem to be the big driver >> in
051the cost of those increases in healthcare premiums. >> I mean over you know a couple of months ago they estimated the increase to be 16%. It's now 10 which was happening here. >> Yeah. This is an issue our entire country is struggling with. >> Yeah. All health care costs are are going all healthcare premiums are going up. >> And unfort, you know, fortunately for us, a 10% is a big hit to a district this size. >> And that is something we do have some control on though as part of the contract negotiations as well. So >> we have Yes. part of the contract is states how much an employee will contribute to those costs. Yes, that's a contractual obligation >> and and we also have control of that being one of the biggest budget factors
052going forward. We may have to be a little more cognizant of that as we move forward. Couple other factors to add that that Val was talking about is some of those reserves also speak to this year but probably a little higher in the past because of some co money that we were able to use um during the school year which which doesn't exist anymore. Um so some of that that might not be as much true. Oh yeah, the co money definitely contributed to it because we we used the co money to cover expenses that would have ordinarily been covered in the budget. So that accounted for surplus and then with the foundation aid with them the district's whole over the last couple of years there were tremendous increases in foundation aid from year to year.
053So that provided extra income for each district and this district chose to put that money into reserves for anticipated capital projects, anticipated electric buses >> which was common around the county. Uh but those two factors are now gated. There's no more COVID and the foundation are now full after 1% like she said. So I don't think I mean I don't know. I don't think the savings at the end of the year will be as as great as it has. Uh and most of the county most of the districts in the county did very similar what we did uh when they had those funds to do that. We uh something else to consider and something to know is that has really helped us as far as our aid has been um the economic wealth of our
054of our um area has gone down um which has helped us with aid um and our enrollment has gone up. Um, a lot of districts enrollment have gone down uh in our county. Kind of seen that trend in New York State as as as New York State. Um, Duchess County has been a little more stable than some other areas. We did some people from the city move to settle in Duchess County versus staying in the city with the whole a little bit. So, we've been very uh very good for for Spack and Field at least is helping us with with some of our budget lines. Um some of that could change like if uh our wealth ratio stays the same or goes up. Um you'll see I think next week's board meeting I'll talk a
055little bit about that and you'll see the trend over the past 10 to 20 years. Um however uh enroll the moment has been increasingly a little bit stable. um you know don't know you know we are seeing some kindergarten enrollments going down over the past few years there's less children being born um but uh our enrollment has has gone up I think one district has over the past five years has gone up in the past six years which has been beneficial for us all that stuff we said that could change, you know. Um, so, um, I think it's it's a good solid budget for this year, you know, working and also setting us up for next year, you know, and the year after not super low where then we'll be in jeopardy, year or two,
056but not so high as as districts are doing because they've already reached some of those points. has been going down a key factor. So that's the good news. Uh it just we just will that trend continue. um you know these will be stable the tuition program you know for just a bit of perspective I mean at the NISSBA's business meeting this year that you know that I've attended for a number of years but this year in particular there was in the context of the various resolutions that were discussed there was a lot of discussion about you know the crunches that a lot of districts are facing and the prospect of you know um unsustainability perhaps of the 2% cap. There's a lot of really there's really a lot of concern that I heard at that
057meeting. Um, and I hear that at the Duchess County School Board Association meetings that I attend as well here in our own district. So I, you know, I think a lot of districts are facing the music, you know, in a way um that you've been discussing >> and a lot of the the lower Hudson, you know, superintendent, the four counties, Westchester, but us foundation is like huge, you know, just state a general for a lot of districts. So really that that governor's budget, you know, everything is like you know, uh, contingent on something else, continue on something else. So, sometimes like when that budget doesn't get passed, you know, we've got a few years where it takes a long time and we're kind of waiting and and luckily uh, some of the things that we
058thought could have happened didn't happen. U, but there's always that feeling and I talk about it like when it's not set, you know, you don't have that good feeling. So, those are the types of things that that we deal with. um basically every day trying to figure out what's best. Um all that being said, inflation's high and a lot of what Jeff said is all also true too. So it's really just trying to trying to do that balance and trying to you know try to be as consistent as that best district. I think we're lucky to be able to do a, you know, a 7% or a $4 million increase, but only have a 1.75% increase to our tax levy. We're not having to max out that that 2 whatever percent that is. Um, I
059just would be interested to see what, you know, where the numbers came from to get up to, you know, that that amount. um and what what we can do to try to get it lower if it's possible instead of trending at the 1.75 and trying to get it back down to a 1.66 at one point and couple of 17 at one point. So seemingly we can do it. >> It seems like every year we talk about the uncertainty of foundation a governor's budget and you also have to worry about the idea pilot. I think when I first got on the board, the pilot probably was somewhere around 12% of our budget and now it's probably down here or so. So, um I don't know how that negotiation's going to go, what that number is going
060to yield for us in the future, but that's something we might have to overcome next year as well. It's a lot of search right there. >> There we still have to overcome. Anyone else? >> Okay, that brings us to 6.03, your secondary administration update. >> Uh, good evening everybody. Um, thank you as always for having us here tonight. Uh it's good to see uh uh Mr. Gerard's class of former Todd students. They probably uh don't remember the library being this small, but yes, the library is actually this small. Uh some of you probably have not been here uh since you were in eighth grade. So, welcome back. Um tonight, um um I want to talk about the AVID program, which we haven't talked about in a while at a board meeting. But first, I just
061want to give uh just two quick uh updates for upcoming events at Todd. One is Willie Wer Jr., which is going to be our play. Um that is this weekend, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Um we do a double cast because there's that many students who are involved, which is pretty rare at middle school to have a double cast of the of the entire play. Um as always, there's uh about 100 students who are involved in uh on stage and behind the stage. So, we're really excited about that. Drama department does a wonderful job. Also, next week uh the uh 18th, 19th, and 20th, the 8th grade will be going to Washington DC. So, we are looking forward to that trip. As always, uh the social studies teachers do a wonderful job with that. Um a
062lot of districts no longer offer it uh because of the cost involved. And we're we're grateful that um that we're able to do some of the things we're able to do because our social studies uh department is our guides. So, we don't pay outside guides. um and they've been doing it um I think it's been about 40 years. It's been a long time. We had we had our parent meeting last week and there were three parents who were on the trip when they were here kind of fun. So, uh I just wanted to give a shout out to those two upcoming things. Um so AVID uh which uh believe it or not is now our fourth year um is a program that uh we started uh at Todd 7th grade. So I'm speaking both as
063the um principal of the middle school but also as the district director for the program because the program now is in four grades. So we started off with a cohort I believe the first cohort was 16. We now have over 60 students uh through the four grades which is really exciting. And what the um what what what AVID is trying to do is trying to give students um kind of extra extra push and to to help with a couple of different things. One is their re relational capacity which is kind of just their way of because as we know school isn't just about kind of book learning. It's about interacting with others. It's about being able to be in relationship with others. a lot of uh how the uh how you uh succeed in the
064world and achieve in the world is through those things. So one is about relational capacity. Another one is opportunity knowledge is giving students the to the ability to know like what they don't know and what they need to know because uh while there are plenty of students who have the supports um to help them with those things, there's lots of students who don't and that's part of of what AVID tries to do. Uh in terms of educators, what we're looking at is insisting on rigor, breaking down barriers for students, advocating for students, and aligning what we do. And um we got four great teachers that are doing that. Uh we got Andy Vlad, Jesse Murphy in the middle school. We've got Randy Calderon, and John Shanks up at the high school. And they have been
065doing just a it's been great. Program has been great. Uh the students have doing a wonderful job. um kind of AVID stands for achievement via individual determination and it really is about the individual. Um you know AVID isn't uh it's not like extra help. What AVID does is it gives you the tools but you have to want those tools. So there is a you know you have to apply to be in the program. You have to be interviewed for the program. Um you have to you have to maintain your your your grades and your behavior to be in the program. Um, in addition, it also is kind of what what I really what we were excited about AVID to begin with, uh, when we looked at it really, it was really about seven, eight years
066ago when the first time I'm looking at it is it it's able to go schoolwide. So, even though we've had we have four teachers who teach the elective class, we've had 13 staff members be trained in various ways. So, it's not just something that happens in say an AVID program for those 60 students. Kind of all teachers start to learn about it. In addition, we've also both um Mr. Lewis at the at the high school and and here at the middle school we've done professional development in AVID because it gives us lots of great so the entire staff have uh had professional development on some of the um AVID tools that we use and basically academically what it what it looks at is well it's called Wicker and Wicker is writing um it is writing
067collaboration um organization and reading um and why is the eye why is the What's that? >> Inquiry. Thank you. And inquiry. So those things are the things that you know the teach for the students that we're trying to um kind of bring into their lives and make sure that that is something that they have moving forward. Um what I want to show you uh this evening is some of the highlights because there's been so much that has been going on that you know it's sort of um I know I think you get these. It'd be really good um if you haven't yet to just kind of look at and we're just going to kind of flash through them, but there's been so many wonderful things that have been going on with the program that um
068I wanted to highlight some of these. So these are this is a newsletter that Mr. Shanks created that just kind of goes through all the different things that AVID that AVID students have been uh involved with. So they do um so we have advocates from the middle school and high school go down to the Hagen Elementary and to um Nassau for positivity project. So they lead the students. So, it's wonderful. They get to see um the the teachers that had them back years ago, get to see them in that capacity. We have had various different speakers. Um I'm not going to go through all the names, but you can kind of look at it later. We've had mocked job interviews. Kind of keep flashing through. Um we've had a couple of different job interviews. We've
069done they have been they've gone to businesses. Um back in December, we had a big mixer. So, we had an avid mixer. We had the entire grades 7 through 10 here for pizza party which was amazing having all the students together. Uh we did a trip to uh Sunni new pulse. We did a there was a mentor program at Hagen that we do. Uh we have had various other speakers. This one here is uh a angel of light which is a program um for volunteers and opportunities and volunteers. They had that for 9th and tth graders. Um, we had we go down to there was more Hagen and Nassau P2 meetings, uh, more speakers. We had the Arlington Fire Department visit our eighth grade students in the fall. Um, we were uh really uh pleased
070to have both of the student both the president and the vice president of the Todd Middle School were both aid students this year, which was exciting. Um we had uh in the fall we had the fit program which was done by the Duchess County Health Department. Um so we had students involved with that which was a wonderful program. Um we did uh I mentioned the afterchool uh PD for high school staff. Um we had a men we have a mentor program down um at Hagen which includes our uh high school students and we had the eighth grade went to Basser. So that was just the first semester of of of of school. So looking at the and then you kind of go through uh and keep going. We have the um Yep. Keep going. Uh
071those are our we have a we do student of the quarter at Todd, but we also have AVID student of the quarter. So those are our AVID students of the quarter. And then if you can jump on to to semester 2 And this is kind of hot off the presses because they were just at uh Sunni uh first one was going to be a trip that the students went to Sunni Albany which was um yesterday. So they went to you want to scroll. So they we had the students uh we had 10th grade students up at uh Sunni Albany. Uh that was yesterday. Um we've had students meet with various different businesses. Um we've had um Sparrow's Nest. They did a podcast with the 10th grade um in the uh during the second semester. Um
072we also highlight some of the things that we do in the classroom which is part of what AVID does is they do what's called study sessions. That's where um you take what's called a point of confusion. So if you if you're if you have something going on in school that you don't understand, you bring it to your classmates and that's part of uh it's a tutorial process. So instead of the tutor typically would be say an adult or a college student, the the adult is just facilitating, it's the tutoring is happening amongst the students themselves. Um we had um another again more speakers and student of the quarter. Um mentorship continued down at the at the elementary school. We had our um so we are so what we do in at for going into seventh
073grade is that's when we kind of put the information out about AVID and we haveformational meetings because it's our it's our sixth grade incoming to seven that begins the program. And uh we had an informational meeting a couple of month a couple weeks ago here. Um and we had a another um avid speaker that also we've done this a couple of different times that they do mock interviews. So we have the students um do that and also um Mr. Susa came down and did some mock interviews for us too. So, as you can see from the breath of it, and I like I said, I went through it really fast cuz I know uh I don't want to be here all night, but if I know that you could get these, and I and I
074encourage you to please go through them and take a look just to see all of the different exposure that uh the AVID students are are given. And um we're really lucky because Spackenville is a great district to support AVID. So many of the things that AVID wants uh that that AVID looks for schools to be able to do, we already do in many ways. So it's a really nice program. Um I didn't talk about um sort of student achievement in in this, but the student achievement data has been pretty remarkable. Um and we've been really happy with where the students have gone from um when they were in middle school to where they're in high school. advanced classes and you know being in honors classes um and being on on honor role and all those
075things all the things have really uh we've been really pleased really happy with it and I I want to thank everybody here I want to thank the district office and the board of education for your support of the program um this cohort model will continue so what'll happen is is we will you know our current 10th grade will be the first graduating class in two years and the cohort model is really powerful I mean, we had I think we lost one student and that was not because and that was because she schedulewise she couldn't be an AVID but this all the students that were in seventh grade are still in 10th grade which is pretty remarkable and uh you know I want to thank Mr. Lewis uh and Missy for for their support you know
076moving into the high school. That was a big move two years ago and you know that's where we were like this is going to be sustained and we're really grateful um you know that Mr. shags was able to go up to the high school. So, all the things are really supported. Um, so I want you up on that. Um, and again, thank you and I'll take any questions that you have on the building. >> Thank you very much. >> How are y'all doing? Thank you everybody. It's a long night. Uh special shout out to Claire, see your peer here. She does this every board meeting and she does it very well. The uh exactly what we would we would want in a student board member. So as you are dismissed, maybe just give a quick
077acknowledgement to Claire. Yeah, you can you can if feel free to stay if you want to, but thank you all for coming. >> All right, just uh piggybacking a little bit on AVID. We did visit I had the opportunity to go with the group yesterday to Sunni Albany. It was a great experience. Uh we're really trying to have some sort of college visit every year for each grade level. Um, and we start with Duchess Community College and and kind of see all the colleges in the area. Um, we're looking to do probably one more next year, but then 11th grade and 12th grade really shifts into giving students the skills to uh to obtain what they want to out of high school. Works with scholarships, that things, but that kind of stuff. But we we're
078going to take a break with the college visits at that point and focus more on skills as they uh navigate out of high school. Um they also our teachers went to FDR and Miss Moy scheduled it uh to go there and to look at 11th and 12th grade electives um as we shift into those sections in the next two years. So AVID's awesome. It's been a great experience. There is one story I want to tell. Um, we were all sitting in the cafeteria in Sunni Albany and our students, 16 of them, 18 of them were in different groups around the cafeteria and Miss Gates and myself and Mr. Shanks were eating lunch together and we watched the other students talk the entire time and I walked over to one of the tables and no maybe
079two people had their phones out but they were upside down on their table and I was just talking to them like do you guys this is interesting because two years ago it would have been a lot of doom doom scrolling on uh sitting at the table in corners or and not really talking to each other and all the students were like that's really interesting like they're realizing they're untraining themselves because the phones aren't banned there, but nobody had them out and they were all hanging out talking about the experience. It was really awesome to see and it kind of uh makes us realize that what we're doing here matters and it's working and and the kids are really happy about that. So, um just the thing about the cell phones um if you can just
080switch to the next slide. I just I I just I'm trying to keep it simple, just have one slide. I know it's a little bit of a collage. confusing, but um on your desk is a just a copy of our Spack newsletter. Miss Gerard is here, one of our adviserss. So, I did want to just provide everybody with a copy of that just to see the work that's done with Spack News and what the students do. Uh it's it's really cool. There's a lot of different articles that are completely the whole newsletter is created by students. Um different opinion articles, things going around the school. So, I figured I'd give everybody a copy to check that out. And thank you to Miss Gerard and Miss Fehey for running that uh that club. They do great
081work and it's it's very extensive and and gives you some insight into the whole social life of school. So um Black History Month, want to acknowledge that we did our we had our fourth spirit week, uh jersey day, collegiate wear, color day, throwback Thursday, blackout Friday. It was a great experience. Kids participated. Um we're we're going to continue doing that. It's a it's a nice little moment in the middle of the school year uh to stop, recognize the importance, and do something fun at the same time. Um right on the uh uh right right before kindness week, too. So we follow up Black History Month spirit week with kindness week. Uh part of that too, YAR, youth against racism has been holding matcha Mondays. So after school they are selling matcha to the students. It's
082been a great hit. Kids love it. I don't particularly love it but um it's an acquired taste I guess but uh it's popular for sure today. So they've been doing that and it's awesome. Uh we have March Madness in the library going on right now. So students are voting uh different book titles, most popular books of the year to find out what's going to be the number one most popular book in Spack and Kill. That is going on every uh week they're voting. Science Olympiad. I had the opportunity to go to John J a couple weeks ago for Science Olympiad. I've never been there before. I wanted to check it out and it was very similar to my experience and I've talked about nice tea but in the science realm. So uh it's very intensive.
083There's a lot of competitions going on all over the building. It was that John J held it this year. And I do want to just acknowledge the students that performed there. Uh Smack and Kill A and B teams performed all very well. They made it to states. Uh some of the students were most likely here tonight. Anna Herodavara and Sed Hussein placed fourth in astronomy. Nathan Steckman and Caleb Buu placed second in boom lever. Max Yin and Anna Heridaria Herodereer, excuse me, placed third in Chem Lab. Uh, Fatima Show and Matteo Scalla placed eighth in Chem Lab. Hannah Haye and Derek placed eighth in Circuit Lab. Adil Anoff and Adam Kersid placed third in Circuit Lab. Bella Yao, Anna and Sed Hussein placed second in code busters. Ethan Lan, Joshua Park, and Jerry Lynn placed
084eighth in code busters. Right. Raichisha Dejorna and Adam Ma placed second in Designer Jeans. Adam Ma and Adil Anof placed third in disease detectives. Belly Yao and Andrew Park placed second in Dynamic Planet. Anna Huang and Ethan Sang placed third in entomology. Saham Shhatery S. Hussein and Andrew Park placed third in experimental design. Anna Huang and Max Yin uh seventh in forensics. Olivia Lynn and Angela Huang placed fifth in forensics. Morgan Augusta and Raisha Dejoura placed fourth in helicopter. Uh Morgan again and Max placed first in machines. Ethan Lan and Devin Wang placed seventh. Uh I don't have the machines. Say Hussein and Max Yen placed first in material science. Adil and Caleb placed second in remote sensing. Adam Ma and Adam Kersid placed seventh in the robot tour. Ethan Sang and Caleb Woo placed
085first in Rocks and Minerals and Norah King and Allison Lee placed first in Write It, Do It. And I just felt it was important to state all their names because it's all day, very intensive. Um, and it it's just great to see so many schools supporting each other, too. It's it is a competition, but everybody's there socializing, supporting each other, watching the experiments that are done. Um, and it's just overall a very positive environment. If you ever have the opportunity to go even for an hour or so, check it out. It's really a great experience. Um, also on the board there's some art. Uh we are around the school putting up um putting up uh strips to allow us to hang more student artwork rather than just have them take it with them and really
086uh show what our students are showcasing rather than just like one night where it's the art show. Uh so we upstairs we have those now u and that's just some artwork that gets done throughout different projects throughout the school year and then we have the big showcases for the art show and that kind of thing. But there's so much done that that we don't get to see. So we're taking this opportunity to showcase the students, their names, um the point, the meaning behind their work upstairs in the 200 400 wing and we're going to create a section that is is kind of um like a showcase area that will look differently. will be painted differently by the library uh to do just that. So that's kind of the start of it, but we but we're
087really trying to highlight all the different art classes. Um our scholastic art competition at Sunni Newalts on February 6th, they our students are their work will be displayed. It was displayed until March 1st in the fine arts building. Um our art students also sent letters to veterans uh recently. So, at our honor society, um I do want to mention a little bit about safety. We currently right now in the high school have 50 CPR certified teachers. Uh that go coincides with some of the new laws and regulations that are in place with uh CPR certifications and we really uh thank you to Mr. Lanzone who worked real hard to provide opportunities and many of our teachers took advantage of that. So, we feel really confident in the building that we have so much knowledge when
088it comes to that. Um, and also three of our our math teachers, I found this super interesting and it's new to me, uh, this past weekend, were certified in youth and teen mental health first aid through Sunni Newalts and the Maya Gold Foundation. So, if you're not familiar with that foundation, a student in Newalts um mental health tragedy, uh they've created this foundation and what they do is they teach students how to manage peer-to-peer if they have friends that are dealing or struggling with mental health uh issues. And they have a program for teachers to get certified in it. and three, Miss Sergeant, Miss Gateson, and Miss Gaul. Our math department went together to get certified in that because they find that it's going to help them kind of um arm them with some strategies
089to help their students in the classes even though their their focus is math. So, I I think that's going to be a trend moving forward. They thought it was they said it was a great experience and we're going to recommend that to many of our teachers moving forward. Um, our counseling department just had their uh eighth grade parent night for Todd parents and they went over graduation uh so high school diploma requirements. Um, students in nine grades 9 through 11 made their elective course selections. Uh, we celebrated National School Counselor Week at the beginning of February and our mid-rank is being worked on and counselors are going to send those transcripts soon. Um lastly, Mahal basketball champions. Very proud of our basketball teams, boys and girls. Uh and successful run with Mahal Championship and Mean
090Girls April 17th, April 18th, and April 19th. It's back and kill High School. Looking forward to that. Uh come join us. And next board meeting, science research will be here to kind of showcase some of what they're working on for our science symposium coming up. >> Next one or the one after >> 24th? It's it's just going to be out here. >> Just going to be out in the lobby displayed. >> Thank you. Okay. Uh 7.01 and board correspondence two different letters of pretty much board. We also had a correspondence uh student related which being handled by our administration. 7.02 is comments from the public on non-aggenda items. public comment. Any comments from the board? >> I've got a couple comments. Uh, one, I had an opportunity can mention the science olympiad. I had an
091opportunity, my wife and I, to go to that event at John J and help out as volunteers and it was really fun. Second everything that that Ken said. uh really enthusiastic group of kids. Wonderful to see. I mean athletes and you know get a lot of attention typically and and this was so great to see an event like that where you know um you know students are passionate about science and really enjoyed you know their time there. It was really fun to see but I mentioned it also because there were a good number of parents you know from the community that were there helping as well. Uh, Miss Mattz does a good job of recruiting volunteers. She helps, you know, put that event on from the judging side and so forth. Um, Miss Trembley was
092there judging. So, it was fun to see some old teachers and some parents in the community, too. So, I really enjoyed that. Uh, and then secondly, I attended the Duchess County School Board Association meeting last week. Uh, was on the 5th. Um, it was an interesting meeting. Um, as I think was noted earlier, the agenda, the main agenda item was um an opportunity for for all representatives of the school districts of Duchess County to talk a little bit about how committees work within their boards. Found thought found it quite interesting. Uh, a real variety of approaches and I'll just try to keep this really truncated but um there were 11 of the 13 districts represented at the meeting. So pretty much everyone plus Boseies and the numbers of committees uh that the districts have uh
093range from two uh to 11 11 committees. Um couple had 10. Uh one I think had 11. Um I described our three committees. The audit committee, the policy committee. I described the rotational structure of our policy committee. People found that interesting and and the safety committee. Um it's it's maybe worth noting that you know that's sounds like a lot. I mean there were quite a few districts that had 10 11 committees but we are by far the smallest committee or the smallest board in in Duchess County. All the other boards are either seven or nine members. So, I think that in my mind anyway counted for why um there's more of a division of labor amongst those larger boards uh and and maybe a proliferation of committees on on some of those boards as well.
094Now, to be fair, some of those high numbers were skewed a bit by districtwide committees. People didn't necessarily distinguish between board committees and district-wide committees that board members sit on. And they also, you know, kind of lump together standing committees and ad hoc committees. So I suppose if we considered ad hoc committees, we'd have more than three. But real interesting um sort of variety. Um the only other thing I guess I would I would emphasize is that um a couple of of districts have curriculum committees uh that are districtwide. I think in every case uh it's a minimum or you know a minority rather of of the districts that have curriculum committees. But that prompted a number of questions and some robust discussion amongst all the people at the meeting uh about the you know
095the roles and responsibilities of of the board um when we started talking about curriculum people had some real questions about the appropriateness of of boards getting involved in curriculum how that happens and so forth. So, um, a lot of, I would say, concern as well as as questions. And most of that, uh, concern, I think, was mitigated by the fact that those are in the cases of of districts that have committees, uh, curriculum committees, they're district-wide committees where board members are are sitting in on the committees and learning more about the curriculum rather than making decisions about it. That was the big concern. you know, uh, boards be in a position of influencing curriculum or or shaping curriculum and a lot of people felt very strongly that board shouldn't be doing that. But um, that
096was one focal point pretty robust discussion about that. >> So interesting discussion >> responsible for approving. >> Yeah. Right. >> So how does that >> what's the concern? I'm just curious. Was it? >> Well, the concern was when when several several people mentioned that they had curriculum committees, questions immediately arose, you know, well, what are your curriculum committees doing? Are they involved in learning about the curriculum or are you proving curriculum? Um, one of the districts that has a curriculum committee mentioned that they talk about books that are selected by the English department that the students read, you know, for instance. Yeah. And that's how the discussion sort of revol evolved was, you know, more about information gathering versus making decisions. >> So kind of getting into the nuts and bolts instead of the big
097picture. >> Yeah. Right. Right. and and what I you know I didn't necessarily speak to that myself but my you know my my personal response to that was that you know we hear about our curriculum through the presentations that we that we get at our meetings uh at our public meetings and we hear about it kind of as a full board whereas some districts have have formed committees you know of district members and staff and uh board members included so learn a little bit more about particular curriculum issues some districts take a similar approach to personal issues regarding tenure, not so much hiring but tenure as well. That's for some discussion as well. Interesting. had a question for Mr. Los. The uh the three math teachers that went and got uh certified, you said it
098was for a peerto-peer. Uh so did they come back with that certification and and kind of like work with the students to work on? >> No. So, so the My Gold Foundation has a program to train students, teens, and even youth, uh, younger than teens. And then there's also like a a separate uh I guess training day where they bring staff in to educate them on what strategies they teach to the students so that they can kind of use that in the class on the fly rather than typically what happens now is like if there's some sort of issue it's we very quickly go well let's get the school psychologist or school social worker administration involved or school counselor. um where now it's just kind of like another layer. A teacher has a little bit
099more confidence to ask a question and and find out a little bit more information and hopefully help or to deescalate something in the moment that could potentially happen. >> That's great. I appreciate them uh going to them and taking their time and that's great to hear. >> Yeah, I only found out about it yesterday at Albany when Miss Gates told me and they had just gone Saturday. So, I don't have a ton of information on it right now, but I'm going to find out. >> Thank you. What else? >> Yeah, with that, I'll turn it over to comments from the superintendent 7.04. >> I'll stick with the uh announcement of thanks. Jeff kind of started getting started uh just just today uh before I talk about today's presentations and things, but uh learning about the
100science Olympia and the Spacky Hill present presence that's down there. You know, I know that a lot of our retired teachers in Miss Mat Frisco uh you know, they helped run it. These were our teachers who, you know, helped uh create our own science and look at and I remember correctly uh years ago when I was a principal there, they actually went two years in a row to nationals with science in the so it just seems it's just great to see that their passion in retirement is still there. Uh that they're going and thank you for going and Miss Trel I didn't know was there so that's pretty cool that a lot of our our teachers are still doing that. Um and just thanks overall, you know, kind of talking about the presentations that happened
101today. Uh so first thanks to Val uh you know, for her diligence with uh really looking at that budget and I know I've seen firsthand, you know, everything that goes into that and all of our meetings trying to to get that to where it is. Uh thanks to Dan um and all his work uh with Abid. um we're starting to see, you know, uh his passion really come to fruition. Um really dealt with itself back, you know, with co came and we had to push it back a year and this and and we stayed with it and I really think that um has been amazing. Um and that's where Kent comes into play. So the transition from the middle school to high school was always the big jump. You know, what's it going to look
102like? How's it going to how's it going to go? and um you know Ken and Sarah have been wonderful champions of it. Uh and then Jonathan Shanks, you know, starting here at Todd and then moving to high school really has helped just facilitate that that growth. Um, and I think it's going to be seen as a program that every year as we talked before that's our students changing um having that um that there and and what we're finding is kind of when we do stuff here we we do it well you know going back to P2 and kind of being recognized about that and then doing the uh the let grow and the anxious generation stuff being recognized by a let grow uh corporation. So it's a lot of times we're doing these but we're
103doing them with such almost were leaders leaders in the in the P2 movement leaders in the let grow movement and then when we had the meeting with the avid people I mean nothing ever came of it but she was so impressed with how Ken and Dan that you know move this to high school where they were also talking about spect. So I just appreciate us not only doing it but doing it with the passion um that has come across sort of this recognition. And then my final thank you is Jod. I'm glad you stayed cuz I wanted to thank her um and for her class the participation in government and really uh giving us the heads up about the number of kids who were coming um and getting her come. It was great to see
104the number of them. It was interesting how when Mr. Lewis got up they all cleared out. So uh you're actually principal your students. uh no you gave them permission which was >> middle school principal >> you know and then just thank the board for all their um you know support and you know programs that we have here they can see how uh we're definitely doing fragility thank you so that brings us to 9.01 01 aski all in >> favor. Thank you.